ok this is where it starts. how does *%%^& call? by peaking someone's curiousity. *^%%$ did not bludgeon moshe over the head, in fact you cant SEE a flame in broad dayligh! you can only see it in the contrasting darkness inside a bush! and even then, it is not obvious and &%$&% is pleased that moshe was WATCHFUL and CURIOUS!

so this flame in the darkness of a s'neh! That's the prefered mode of mal'akhei &%%^& fireflies in the night.

s'neh and sar (to turn) both with samekh.

a bush which is burning but is not consumed. this is an image for something. the heart? the jewish people? a coal? looking into burning coals is a confusing thing, various levels of contrast between light and darkness

whoah! this is a heavy scene! the jews are encamped against the sea. they sea the egyptians coming at them. the pillar starts out as a cloud but then the text says night, night is falling. for the egyptians it remains a cloud of darkness, for the jews it becomes a pillar of light lighting the night. yhvh says to moshe, don't just stand there! split the seas! this is birth! run.

woah here he's looking through to the egyptians throgh a pillar of fire AND cloud.

v'yaham 'et makhana mitzraiym. threw them into a tumult.

this is so dense! and there is the kheved elohim going on too. making the chariot wheels too heavy to turn, but egypt will know that i am yhvh when i'm 'heavyified against pharoa. damm i still don't understand this kheved concept.

then there is the yad gadol image.

the water swallowed the egyptians to death. and then right afterwards in some kind of penance, the waters refused to give the israelites life, they went thirsty and couldn't find water to drink. so much rich imagery tangled up!

MARX BROTHERS AT HAR SINAI:

ok, 19:now they are at sinai, the har at khorev (khet resh vet, but the protectors are kheruvim, khof, resh vet hmm..)

moshe goes up, but no burning bush anymore or is that at the top? by now the little burning bush is a huge thunderstorm of fire atop the mountain? it's got to attract a whole swarm of people!

curious that yethro begins this scene. he brings zippora back to moshe. only when zipora is with him can he go up to yhvh?

so he goes up, then yhvh tells him what to tell the people so he goes down and tells them. then he goes up agaiin to tell yhvh

so then yhvh tells moshe to go down and prepare them. yhvh will come down, keep the people from going up.

( b'moshekh hayovel. at the blowing of the horn. in 18:17 jetrho says to moshe why are you b eing counsel for ALL the people youu will naval tival yourself out wear yourself out. and cain's brother who dissipated into the soil is hevel.)

v'ya'al 'ashanu k'eshen hakivshan v'yekherad kol hahar m'od. smoke went up like smoke of a furnace and the har trembled.

this is remeniscent of b'reishit 15:17 when yhvh makes the covenant of split animals with sleeping abram. but it uses different words: v'hine tanur ashan (different word for oven) v'lapid 'esh (different word for flame than at the s'neh at s'neh it's labat for flame similar sound) 'asher 'avar bein hadzarim ha'ela.

UP DOWN UP DOWN, this whole scene.

(is this what yaakov saw when he dreamt the angels going up and down the ladder?)

shophar gets louder, moshe speaks and yhvh answers in a kol, or outloud.

then yhvh came down to the top of har sinai,. called moshe up, and moshe goes up. he tells moshe to go down. (it's comical, no? the marx brothers could have done this!) warn the people in case they break through. but let the kohanim approach.

but moshe says the people is not able to go up because you said hagbel the mountain, limit it. (confusion is setting in)

yhvh said lekh red go go down, then you come up you with aaron with you. but don't let the kohanim and the people break through. It's CHAOS it's BIRTH! push pull push pull!

and the people saw, and moved and stood at a distance and said to moshe, YOU speak with us so we may listen but let 'elohim (they percieve god as 'elohim here not as yhvh!) not speak with us or else we'll die.

then yhvh tells moshe to say some curious stuff one more time: you have seen that i've spoken from the skies (?) so don't make gods of silver with me and dont make gods of gold for yourselves. but make an alter of adama and if you do make a mizbe'akh of 'avanim don't cut 'em with a metal impliment (sword). and don't show your weenie to them either!

that's it. then reams of laws for pages.

no, there is more, at 24, more weirdness:

yhvh says to moshe come up with aaron, nadab and abihu and seventy elders (not kohanim) and moshe will come over ALONE to yhvh and they shal not come over tand the people shall not come up.

then moshe came (down?) and told the people all the reams of laws and the people in one voice said we'll do the things that yhvh has spoken.

then moshe wrote them.

then the next day builds 12 pillars, sacrifices reads the document again, the people say we will do and we will listen.

ok, now the wierd stuff, the people are below at the 12 pillars and moshe and aron nadab abihu and 72 elders (6 per tribe half of 144 curious) go up and they SAW god.

and he did not put his hand to the chiefs. v'yekhezu 'et ha'elohim (hey i thought it's not supposed to be i -it but i -thou! 'ET elohim. odd that they let this pass) and ate and drank. envision?

then yhvh says to moshe come up and i'll give you stone tablets... and moshe and joshua his attendant got up... and to the elders sit for us here until we come back down. (this is remeniscent of the akeda!) and moshe went p to the mountain and the cloud covered the mountain. and k'vod yhvh settled on mt sinai and the cloud coverd it six days. and he called to moshe on the seventh day from inside the cloud.

and moshe was in the mountain 40 days and 40 nightsand he tells him how to make the mishkan. ending with shamar hashabat. and gave him the lukhot ha'edut.

meanwhile, 40 days is too much and the people forget themselves and demand gold images of gods from aaron, who appeases them.

and yhvh spoke to moshe go, go down because YOUR people whom you brougt UP from egypt has shikhet. (ah, there is another use of the word shakhat! maybe not breed lustily, maybe it merely means deteriorates. or maybe it means do something hatefull, or turn back on a promise...)

v'yikhar aphi b'hem v'akhalem. his anger will fire at them and consume them. there is that consume thing again, now it is the people israel who will be consumed by the flame. but NOT SO, the flame keeps burning in israel, but has YET to consume them fully.

***THAT'S the image! the flame is our struggle, our attempts our failures our reaching our falling yet we are not consumed by it but refined. THAT'S god.****

and that's the primordial darkness.

and moshe parries

v'yikhal moshe: conciliated, saved the people who shakhat, JUST AS NOAKH CONCILIATED AND SAVED ALL FLESH WHO SHAKHAT!

what men and women these are, christians are such wimps with their fawning before not even god but his seet son! turning the other cheek so groveling before an all powerful god! hah!

so moshe and joshua come down the mountain. this time joshua comes down with him unlike yitzkhak with abraham, however unlike with abraham, moshe fights god and says, "no, don't kill the children"

then odd: they hear sound, singing not of victory not of defeat but just singing they hear. odd commentary!

so now moshe flares out like the raging bull as if the fires of his own rage burn the golden calf and he himself stomps it to dust!

then an accusation of aaron as in gan eden to khava. and a harsh punishment, he does not wipe out the people but he does execute many. harsher than the punnishment at gan eden!

then moshe goes BACK UP and asks god to bear their sin. what exactly does that mean? he says wipe me out rather than bear their sin, but god says he will only wipe out those who sinned against him. and he struck them.

then they go.

ugh there is so much.

the amud anan is still at the mishkan where moshe sees god. then they have a little love fest where moshe finally yells out let me see you! and god says ok, and moshe comes up and god passes so moshe can see his back his kavod passing and gets new tablets and when he comes down his face is burnt to horn and it horrifies the people so he has to wear a veil over his face when the people come to see him.